Brian Robinson, of Harrison Township, Michigan, wrote us to share his story about how his WARN winch saved him and his Dodge truck over Christmas. We'll let Brian tell the story in his own words.

I recently purchased my first WARN Winch for my truck (I already own a WARN for my ATV also) and had even e-mailed your company questions about the different models. I bought my winch for emergency use only; I had no intentions of taking my truck off roading with the idea of purposely winching. I spent the Christmas holiday camping and riding my quad while scouting hunting areas in the Sacramento Mountains of New Mexico, which is at 8,500 ft. elevation and has frequent snow storms. On Dec. 24 the weather turned bad and we were getting dumped on with snow.

I decided since I was by myself and there is no cell phone coverage, I had better leave early. I had a hard time leaving the camping area in the deep snow, all together I believe we had 18" of snow and my 4x4 diesel was struggling to get traction in the snow with the weight of my 26 ft. toy hauler. My WARN VR10000 was able to winch me back onto the road. That was my first use of the new winch, but it wouldn't be my last.

My camping spot was six miles from the nearest state highway, on a one lane forest service road that had not been plowed and is very steep and windy in some places. While trying to drive up the last incline near an area called Bluff Springs, I began to lose traction and my vehicle rapidly slid to the left which was a 100 ft.+ drop off to a ravine with no guardrail. I was able to get my vehicle stopped, but my left front tire was completely off the road. I quickly spotted a large tree on the right side about 30 yards high on the embankment. I crawled on my hands and knees to get my winch cable anchored around the tree and my WARN winch was able to pull my truck to the right and kept it safely on the road until I could get help getting up the hill.

On Monday December 26th, a fellow hunter who was driving on the road that I was stuck on just happened to have a cable extension and a second snatch block with him. Together with his truck as an anchor point with a snatch block, I was able to get up the hill and back home safely that night. I'm a firm believer that my WARN winch saved me this weekend.

I will never own any truck without a winch and that winch will always be a WARN. Keep up the great work, your products are built for real world conditions!

Brian, we're glad you and your rig came out unscathed, and we appreciate you letting us use your story on our blog. Thanks for your business.